Number  II. 


m  j 

Series  XII. 

BULLETIN 

OF  THE 

University  of  Notre  Dame 

NOTRE  DAME,  INDIANA 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  JOURNALISM 


“BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT  OF  A  NEWSPAPER” 

By  Wm.  H.  Field,  Business  Manager  of  The  Chicago  Tribune 

PUBLISHED  QUARTERLY  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
OCTOBER.  1916 

Entered  at  the  Post  Office,  Notre  Dame,  Indiana,  as  second  class  matter, 
July  17.  1905 


DIRECTORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 


The  FACULTY— Address: 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME, 

Notre  Dame,  Indiana. 


The  STUDENTS— Address: 

As  for  the  Faculty,  except  that  the  name  of  the 
Hall  in  which  the  student  lives  should  be  added. 

There  are  at  the  University  a  Post  Office,  a  Telegraph 
Office,  a  Long  Distance  Telephone,  and  an  Express 
Qffice. 

The  University  is  two  miles  from  the  city  of  South 
Bend,  Indiana,  and  about  eighty  miles  east  of  Chicago. 
The  New  York  Central,  the  Grand  Trunk,  the  Van- 
dalia,  the  Indiana,  Illinois  &  Iowa,  the  Chicago  and 
Indiana  Southern,  and  the  Michigan  Central  Railways 
run  directly  into  South  Bend.  A  trolley  line  runs  cars 
from  South  Bend  to  the  University  every  fifteen 
minutes. 

The  Latitude  of  the  University  is  41  degrees,  43 
minutes,  and  12.7  seconds  North,  and  86  degrees, 
14  minutes  and  19.3  seconds  West  of  Greenwich. 

The  elevation  is  about  750  feet  above  the  sea. 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  the  location  is  favorable 
for  a  healthful  climate  where  students  may  engage  in 
vigorous  mental  work  without  too  great  fatigue  or 
danger  to  health. 


THE  BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT  OF 
A  NEWSPAPER* 


]N  the  minds  of  most  of  those  who  read  newspapers 
without  having  anything  to  do  with  their  'making, 
and  indeed  in  the  minds  of  many  of  those  who  have 
to  do  only  with  the  news  and  editorial  side  of  news 
papers,  the  romance  and  human  interest  of  the  news¬ 
paper  business  are  confined  to  those  who  find  and  write 
the  news.  The  newspaper  in  fiction  is  usually  illustrated 
by  the  adventures  of  either  the  star  reporter  or  the 
cub  reporter,  whose  thrilling  experiences  and  eventual 
promotion  might  lead  one  to  believe  that  upon  them 
only  rests  the  success  or  failure  of  their  particular  news¬ 
paper. 

There  are,  however,  just  as  many  interesting  assign¬ 
ments,  just  as  many  unexpected  happenings,  just  as 
much  of  gratifying  success  and  of  discouraging  failure 
in  the  day’s  work  of  the  advertising  man  and  the  cir¬ 
culation  man,  as  in  the  experience  of  the  reporter. 

For  the  better  presentation  of  the  subject,  the  busi¬ 
ness  side  of  a  newspaper  may  be  considered  as  consisting 
of  four  divisions  which  are  respectively,  Accounting, 
Advertising,  Circulation  and  Manufacturing. 

In  the  management  of  any  business,  no  matter  what 
its  size  or  nature,  one  has  to  deal  with  the  same  human 
qualities,  the  same  enthusiasm  (or  lack  of  it),  the  same 
loyalty,  energy  and  efficiency  with  which  the  captain 
of  a  football  team  has  to  deal.  The  first  thing  that 

*An  address  by  Wm.  H.  Field,  Business  Manager  of  The  Chi¬ 
cago  Tribune,  delivered  before  the  students  in  the  school  of 
Journalism  at  the  University  of  Notre  Dame,  March  12,  1913. 


4 


bulletin  of  the 


the  head  of  any  business  must  recognize  is  the  fact 
that  no  one  man,  no  matter  of  what  ability  or  energy, 
can  accomplish  by  himself  all  that  is  necessary  to  accom¬ 
plish  in  the  management  of  that  business.  The  secret 
of  successful  management  lies  in  the  happy  choice  of 
subordinate  department  heads ;  the  assignment  to 
them  of  a  proper  amount  of  authority  and  responsibility ; 
encouragement,  praise  and  helpful  criticism  when  it 
is  due,  and  the  requiring  of  results. 

The  Accounting  Department  of  a  newspaper  deals 
with  three  main  items,  each  one  of  which  includes  an 
almost  infinitesimal  number  of  detail  branches.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  of  all  the  divisions  of  the  business 
side  of  a  newspaper,  that  of  accounting  is  the  driest 
and  least  interesting  to  the  layman,  although  certainly 
not  the  least  important.  The  three  elements  with  which 
the  Accounting  Department  has  especially  to  do  are, 
Receipts,  Disbursements  and  Accounts.  In  dealing 
with  this  branch  of  the  newspaper  business  I  shall 
refrain  from  mentioning  the  phases  of  accounting 
work  by  their  technical  names,  in  the  belief  that  a 
subsequent  lecture  in  this  same  course  will  cover  the 
subject  of  accounting  completely  and  will  be  scholarly 
and  valuable,  whereas  whatever  I  might  say  would  be 
of  less  technical  worth. 

Under  the  head  of  Receipts  the  Accounting  Depart¬ 
ment  has  the  highly  important  function  of  determining 
that  the  proper  charge  is  made  for  all  advertising 
printed  and  for  all  copies  of  the  newspaper  sold.  When 
one  considers  that  a  single  daily  issue  of  a  newspaper 
like  the  Tribune  frequently  contains  as  many  as  2,500 
separate  advertisements,  each  one  of  which  must  be 
checked  and  rechecked  several  times,,  one  can  get  some 
idea  of  the  enormous  amount  . of  detail  that  is  necessary. 

After  the  charges  have  been  made,  it  is  also  necessary 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


5 


for  the  Accounting  Department  to  see  that  they  are 
collected  from  advertisers  and  newsdealers.  This 
involves  a  detail  of  billing  and  collection  work  that 
in  itself  is  no  small  task.  Our  Accounting  Department 
renders  about  24,000  bills  every  month. 

Having  determined  that  the  newspaper  is  charging 
and  collecting  for  all  the  service  rendered  to  its  advertisers 
and  its  newsdealers,  it  is  also  necessary  for  the  Account¬ 
ing  Department  to  make  sure  that  the  disbursements 
are  handled  in  the  proper  manner.  All  bills  must  be 
audited,  prices  checked  against  the  requisitions  for 
supplies,  and  remittances  made  at  the  proper  times  to 
take  all  discounts  wdiich  are  allowed.  In  this  connection, 
it  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  The  Tribune  pays 
about  3,500  bills  per  month.  To  the  uninitiated  the 
single  precaution  that  each  bill  should  be  paid  only 
once  is  of  itself  sufficiently  staggering. 

The  third  function  of  a  newspaper  Accounting 
Department  is  that  which  I  have  designated  as  Accounts. 
By  this  I  mean  the  actual  accounting  itself,  which 
includes  the  distribution  of  charges  against  the  proper 
departments  and  the  credits  of  collections  in  the  same 
way.  This  division  of  the  Accounting  Department’s 
work  is  extremely  vital  because  the  results  of  it  show 
the  management  whether  or  not  the  Company  is  making 
a  profit,  and  which  of  the  vast  number  of  departments 
and  sub-departments  needs  a  check  or  an  impetus. 
We  have  between  700  and  800  separate  accounts  to 
which  charges  or  credits  are  made. 

You  will  appreciate  that  I  have  touched  upon  news¬ 
paper  accounting  in  the  most  casual  way.  If  I  were 
talking  to  the  students  of  a  business  college,  I  should 
go  more  into  detail,  but  I  take  it  that  you  are  more 
interested  in  the  human  side  of  the  business  manage¬ 
ment  of.  a  newspaper  and  in  the  nature  of  the  work 


6 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


that  you  who  graduate  may  expect  to  do  in  the  news¬ 
paper  business.  Few,  if  any  of  you,  will  do  actual 
newspaper  accounting,  although  I  hope  that  some  of 
you  will  eventually  have  supervision  over  it.  If  you  do, 
you  will  be  fortunate  if  you  find  an  auditor  or  chief 
accountant  who  will  look  upon  his  work  as  the  poet 
or  the  painter  looks  upon  his.  I  know  of  only  one  such 
man  and  he  is  as  interested  in  this  somewhat  dry  subject 
of  accounting,  and  as  devoted  to  it,  and  as  proud  of  his 
shortcuts,  time  and  labor  saving  devices  and  other 
innovations  as  a  poet  or  an  artist  could  possibly  be  of 
his  masterpieces.  Such  a  man  will  organize  and  train 
his  department  toward  its  maximum  efficiency,  as  will 
the  captain  of  an  athletic  team  organize  and  train  his 
men  toward  the  big  event  of  the  season. 

Another  division  of  the  business  side  of  a  newspaper, 
and  the  most  important  one  from  a  revenue-producing 
standpoint,  is  the  Advertising  Department.  Practically 
all  the  revenue  of  a  newspaper  comes  from  two  sources, 
advertising  and  circulation.  Of  the  total  revenue 
of  a  penny  newspaper  about  70  per  cent  comes  from 
advertising  and  30  per  cent  from  circulation.  The 
Advertising  Department  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper 
offers  a  splendid  field  of  work  for  young  men  who  are 
not  afraid  of  work.  Ten  or  fifteen  years  ago  the  adver¬ 
tising  business  was  on  a  much  lower  plane  than  it  is 
to-day.  In  the  old  days  the  successful  solicitor  of 
advertising  was  the  middle-aged  man  with  a  big  voice 
and  hearty  manner,  fine  clothes  and  a  liberal  expense 
account.  Such  men  flourished  in  the  days  when  news¬ 
paper  and  magazine  space  was  sold  in  bulk  to  a  com¬ 
paratively  few  so-called  advertising  agents,  who  in 
turn  jobbed  it  out  to  the  less  fortunate  advertiser, 
taking  as  their  profit  the  difference  between  what  they 
had  contracted  to  pay  the  publication  for  the  space 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


7 


and  what  they  were  able  to  wring  from  the  advertiser 
in  the  way  of  excess  charge.  There  was  no  fixed  rate 
for  advertising  space  and  in  many  cases  the  publisher’s 
representative  was  not  able  to  tell  his  prospective 
customers  what  they  would  have  to  pay  for  space  in 
his  publication.  The  matter  of  price  was  largely  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  of  these  advertising  agents. 

Business  for  their  respective  publications  was  secured 
in  those  days  by  such  representatives  largely  through 
personal  acquaintance  and  good-fellowship.  Logical 
argument,  sound  reasoning  and  service  to  the  advertiser 
were  conspicuously  absent.  The  advertising  business 
in  those  days  did  not  have  a  very  good  reputation  and 
for  such  reasons  as  the  foregoing,  did  not  deserve  one. 

Today  the  situation  has  materially  changed.  The 
old-fashioned  publisher’s  representative  has  given  way 
to  the  energetic  young  man  who  must  give  sound 
reasons  before  he  can  secure  the  business  of  any  adver¬ 
tiser.  Acquaintance  is  still  and  always  will  be  a  desirable 
qualification,  but  its  chief  value#to-day  is  to  give  credence 
to  the  claims  and  arguments  of  the  fortunate  repre¬ 
sentatives  who  possess  it.  If  a  man  is  known  to  be 
honest  and  clean  in  his  habit  of  thought  and  manner  of 
life,  the  statements  that  he  makes  on  behalf  of  his 
publication  are  believed.  If  he  is  known  as  a  careless, 
reckless  individual,  it  is  only  natural  to  accept  what 
he  has  to  say  with  a  mental  reservation. 

Young  men  of  to-day  are  starting  in  the  newspaper 
advertising  business  at  a  minimum  salary  of  from  $10.00 
to  $15.00  a  week,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  adver¬ 
tising  managers  or  special  representatives  of  single 
newspapers  who  are  paid  as  much  as  $15,000.00  to 
$20,000.00  a  year.  Soipe  of  the  so-called  specials,  who 
represent  a  list  of  newspapers,  are  said  to  make  even 
more  money  than  this. 


8 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


The  Tribune's  advertising  department  is  composed 
of  two  broad  divisions,  both  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  advertising  manager.  One  division  looks  after  the 
so-called  classified  business,  which  is  composed  of-  the 
small  Want  Ads,  and  the  other  has  to  do  only  with  the 
larger  advertisements,  which  are  known  as  display. 
The  total  volume  of  advertising  printed  in  the  Tribune 
is  about  equally  divided  between  classified  and  display, 
although  the  former  brings  a  much  lower  rate  than  the 
latter. 

The  classified  advertising  department  has  at  its  head 
a  manager  who  has  under  him  approximately  eighty 
representatives.  This  department  is  really  a  school 
for  young  men  and  young  women  who  seek  experience 
in  the  newspaper  advertising  business.  We  have  a  wait¬ 
ing  list  of  forty  or  fifty  names  from  which  the  newcomers 
are  selected  from  time  to  time  as  occasion  demands.  We 
have  what  amounts  almost  to  a  civil  service  system  in 
our  advertising  department  and  nearly  every  one  of 
the  higher  paid  representatives  is  a  graduate  of  the 
classified  department. 

These  eighty  representatives  may  be  roughly  divided 
into  four  branches,  which  are:  the  main  office  solicitors, 
the  solicitors  at  the  counter  in  the  business  office,  the 
telephone  solicitors  and  the  solicitors  who  work  from 
two  branch  offices,  one  in  the  Northwest,  and  one  in 
the  Southwest  sections  of  the  City. 

The  main  office  solicitors  meet  every  morning  in  a 
large  room  which  is  arranged  like  a  school  room.  They 
have  desks  and  blackboards  and  upon  the  latter  are 
written  various  statistical  records  which  indicate  the 
work  of  the  more  successful  individuals  among  these 
representatives,  the  figures  of  the  same  day  in  the 
previous  year  and  in  the  previous  week,  which  serve 
as  an  incentive,  and  various  bits  of  interesting  informa- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


9 


tion  concerning  the  current  work  in  hand.  At  this 
meeting  the  assignments  for  the  day  are  made  and  usually 
one  special  topic  is  discussed  which  has  reference  to 
some  new  soliciting  point,  comment  or  objection  which 
has  been  met  by  some  of  the  representatives  in  their 
day’s  work.  Sometimes  we  stage  a  little  drama  and 
assign  to  chosen  representatives  the  parts  of  An  Obdurate 
Merchant,  The  Merchant’s  Advertising  Manager,  and 
The  Tribune  Representative.  The  latter  endeavors 
to .  convince  the  Obdurate  Merchant  that  he  should 
advertise.  The  Merchant  gives  his  reasons  for  not 
advertising  and  criticizes  The  Tribune  as  well  as  news¬ 
papers  in  general.  The  colloquy  is  usually  interesting 
and  instructive,  many  points  of  argument  being  brought 
out  on  each  side  that  are  helpful  to  the  other  members 
of  the  department. 

These  solicitors  who  work  from  the  main  office  follow 
a  system  of  helping  the  advertiser  expand  to  his  possi¬ 
bilities,  which  is  at  once  helpful  to  the  advertiser  and 
profitable  to  the  Paper.  The  first  step  in  securing  an 
advertiser’s  business  is  taken  by  the  cash  solicitors, 
who  cover  the  City  with  the  exception  of  those  sections 
served  by  the  two  branch  offices.  For  the  purpose  of 
simplifying  the  work,  the  City  is  divided  into  a  number 
of  districts,  to  each  of  which  one  or  more  men  are 
assigned.  These  men  handle  the  many  minor  branches 
of  Want  Ads  such  as:  Rooms  To  Rent,  Board  &  Lodg¬ 
ing,  etc.,  and  collect  in  advance  from  their  customers 
for  the  advertising  to  be  done,  turning  in  the  copy  and 
cash  at  the  main  office  each  night. 

Whenever  these  cash  solicitors  run  across  customers 
who  are  willing  and  able  to  sign  contracts  for  regular 
advertising,  such  customers  are  then  turned  over  to 
the  second  division,  known  as  the  contract  solicitors. 
These  contract  solicitors  obtain  the  signatures  of  the 


IO 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


advertisers  to  contracts  calling  for  a  minumm  amount 
of  space  to  be  used  each  day  for  one  year,  for  which 
certain  specified  reductions  in  price  are  made. 

After  these  contracts  have  been  secured  by  the 
contract  solicitors  and  the  advertisers  signing  them  are 
thus  established  as  regular  users  of  space,  the  third 
division  swings  in  and  takes  the  advertiser  off  the  hands 
of  the  contract  solicitors.  The  third  division  is  composed 
of  the  charge  solicitors  whose  duty  it  is  to  see  that  the 
advertisers  who  have  signed  contracts  begin  gradually 
to  use  each  day  more  than  the  minimum  space  contracted 
for.  Care  is  always  exercised  to  see  that  the  advertiser’s 
interests  are  considered  first,  and  these  charge  solicitors 
are  under  strict  instructions  not  to  attempt  to  persuade 
an  advertiser  to  increase  his  space  unless  increased 
returns  are  probable. 

This  system  of  passing  the  advertiser  from  hand 
to  hand  has  proved  to  be  a  great  success,  especially 
for  the  advertiser  who,  without  the  constant  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  these  young  men,  might 
be  satisfied  to  let  well  enough  alone,  which  in  this  day 
of  keen  competition  is  not  a  wise  policy.  Many  a  mer¬ 
chant  doing  business  in  Chicago  today  has  a  young 
classified  representative  to  thank  for  spurring  his 
ambition.  You  can  readily  see,  therefore,  that  there 
is  an  excellent  opportunity  for  a  young  man  of  parts 
to  show  his  ability  even  in  this  primary  school  of  news¬ 
paper  advertising.  The  nature  of  the  work  is  such  that 
ability  is  quickly  apparent. 

Another  division  of  the  classified  work  is  that  of  the 
counter  solicitors  in  the  business  office.  The  business 
office  of  a  newspaper  is  its  chief  point  of  contact  with 
that  part  of  the  public  which  is  quickest  to  criticize. 
Uniform  courtesy,  tact  and  intelligence  are  the  chief 
qualities  required  of  those  newspaper  representatives 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


1 1 


who  stand  behind  the  counter  in  the  business  office 
and  receive  the  Want  Ads  brought  in  voluntarily  by 
the  public.  There  is  much  more  to  this  work  than  the 
mere  receiving  of  Want  Ads  and  giving  of  information 
concerning  costs  and  insertions.  The  man  who  shows 
himself  to  be  really  interested  in  the  particular  problem 
of  th£  individual  who  brings  in  a  Want  Ad,  will  be  able 
to  suggest  a  change  in  its  wording  or  in  the  date  and 
number  of  its  insertions,  which  will  render  a  greater 
service  to  the  advertiser  than  if  his  Want  Ad  had  been 
merely  accepted  and  a  receipt  issued  for  the  money. 
You  have  heard  of  the  personal  service  which  The 
Tribune  endeavors  to  render  to  its  readers.  This  per¬ 
sonal  service  is  not  confined  to  the  news,  editorial  and 
feature  departments  alone.  We  have  just  remodeled 
our  business  office  and  removed  from  it  a  number  of 
cashiers  and  clerks,  leaving  only  those  employes  who 
actually  come  in  contact  with  the  public.  We  have 
established  what  we  call  an  Advertising  Service  Bureau, 
consisting  of  several  sub-divisions  under  which  fall  all 
the  Want  Ads  brought  into  the  business  office  by  the 
public.  Each  one  of  these  sub-divisions  is  presided 
over  by  a  young  man  carefully  trained  and  experienced, 
whose  sole  duty  it  is  to  study  the  problems  confronting 
those  who  come  into  the  business  office  to  place  Want 
Ads,  and  to  help  them  secure  what  they  seek,  or  sell 
what  they  have  to  offer.  The  purchase  of  space  is  only 
a  small  part  of  successful  advertising.  What  goes 
into  that  space  is  vastly  more  important,  and  if  the 
newspaper  is  far-sighted  enough  to  realize  that  through 
the  success  of  its  advertisers  comes  its  own  reputation 
as  a  profitable  advertising  medium,  its  advertising 
receipts  will  grow. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  branches  of  the  classified 
department  is  that  which  solicits  and  accepts  Want 


2 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


Ads  over  the  telephone.  Many  newspapers  have  now 
taken  advantage  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  the 
service  of  local  telephone  companies  and  established 
departments  which  not  only  receive,  but  also  solicit 
advertisements  over  the  telephone.  The  voluntary 
advertisements  received  in  this  way  are  stimulated 
through  the  announcements  in  the  newspapers  them¬ 
selves.  Telephone  subscribers  are  urged  to  save  their 
time  and  carfare,  call  up  the  office  of  the  newspaper, 
ask  for  an  ad  taker  and  give  their  advertisements  over 
the  telephone.  Any  telephone  subscriber  whose  name 
is  in  the  telephone  directory  is  privileged  to  do  this  and 
a  bill  is  sent  after  the  insertion  of  the  advertisements. 
At  first  thought,  the  collection  of  the  charges  for  such 
telephone  advertisements  might  seem  to  be  problemati¬ 
cal.  As  a  matter  of  fact  men  and  women  are  naturally 
honest  and  the  proportion  of  uncollectable  telephone 
charges  to  the  total  telephone  charges  with  us  is  only 
about  2  per  cent. 

In  our  own  office  we  are  not  content  with  merely 
accepting  voluntary  advertisements  over  the  telephone 
but  we  also  have  a  corps  of  young  women  whose  duty 
it  is  to  receive  assignments  furnished  them  by  the 
manager,  call  up  and  solicit  advertising  from  those  who 
have  already  advertised  in  other  newspapers.  This 
branch  of  the  telephone  work  requires  tact,  training 
and  long  experience. 

The  remaining  division  of  the  classified  department 
is  that  of  the  branch  offices.  Many  newspapers  printing 
a  large  amount  of  classified  advertising  have  agencies 
among  the  drug  stores  in  the  various  sections  of  the 
city,  at  which  advertisements  may  be  left  and  from 
which  they  are  in  turn  transmitted  to  the  main  office 
of  the  newspaper.  In  addition  to  about  500  of  these 
agency  branches,  we  have  two  branch  offices  of  our 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


13 


own  which  are  miniature  reproductions  of  our  main 
business  office.  Facilities  are  offered  in  these  two 
branch  offices  for  the  receipt  of  voluntary  advertise¬ 
ments  over  the  counter  and  over  the  telephone.  We 
also  employ  a  number  of  schoolboys  who  live  in  the 
respective  neighborhoods  and  who  work  after  school 
hours  soliciting  business  from  the  merchants  and 
business  men  in  the  district.  These  offices  are  still 
in  the  experimental  stage. 

In  the  Want  Ad  columns  of  a  newspaper  are  to  found 
dozens  of  tabloid  human  interest  stories  that  those  who 
do  not  read  the  classified  columns  are  unfortunate 
enough  to  miss.  There  is  an  appeal  from  a  convict 
whose  term  in  prision  is  about  to  expire  and  who  must 
find  work  before  he  can  be  set  free.  A  father,  with 
memories  of  his  own  childhood  days,  seeks  a  rocking- 
horse  for  his  small  son  and,  dissatisfied  with  the  modern 
make  of  rocking  horses,  wants  to  find  one  of  the  old- 
fashioned  kind,  perhaps  stored  in  some  dusty  corner 
of  an  attic.  A  housewife,  discouraged  with  the  ineffi¬ 
ciency  of  her  cook,  seeks  a  recipe  or  an  actual  pie  such 
as  mother  used  to  make.  A  distracted  mother  pleads 
for  information  concerning  her  wayward  son.  These 
and  dozens  of  other  little  heart-stories  are  to  be  found 
from  day  to  day  in  the  Want  Ad  columns  of  a  great 
metropolitan  newspaper.  Shall  we  leave  all  the  romance 
of  the  newspaper  business  to  the  Local  Room? 

The  other  main  division  of  the  advertising  department 
is  that  which  secures  the  publication  of  display  adver¬ 
tising.  With  us,  this  department  is  composed  of  a  much 
smaller  number  of  representatives  than  are  engaged  in 
the  classified  department.  There  are  about  twenty-five 
in  all  and  practically  every  one  of  them  is  a  graduate  of 
our  primary  school  of  newspaper  advertising.  To  carry 
out  further  the  idea  of  personal  service  to  our  advertisers 


4 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


as  well  as  to  our  readers,  we  have  found  it  desirable  to 
specialize  in  this  branch  of  the  advertising  department. 
The  various  lines  of  business  endeavor  with  which  our 
representatives  come  in  contact,  are  assigned  among  the 
display  solicitors.  For  example,  all  the  musical  instru¬ 
ment  advertising  that  emanates  from  Chicago,  is  looked 
after  by  one  man  who  has  nothing  else  to  do.  This 
man  knows  as  much  about  the  manufacture  and  mer¬ 
chandising  of  pianos  as  the  average  retailer  of  pianos 
in  the  City  of  Chicago.  He  is  therefore  in  a  position 
to  be  helpful  to  the  piano  advertiser  and  to  offer  per¬ 
tinent  suggestions,  not  only  as  to  the  size  of  space  to  be 
used,  the  days  on  which  to  advertise  and  the  kind  of 
copy  to  write,  but  also  as~to  methods  of  handling  and 
training  salesmen,  advantages  in  purchasing  and  in 
some  cases  even  in  manufacturing.  In  the  same  way 
we  are  constantly  training  specialists  in  the  advertising 
of  automobiles,  financial,  railroads,  summer  and  winter 
resorts,  furniture,  clothing,  shoes  and  many  other 
minor  branches. 

The  men  in  the  display  department  meet  each  day 
with  the  advertising  manager  for  a  brief  conference. 
New  points  of  solicitation  are  brought  up  and  discussed. 
Answers  to  objections  on  the  part  of  advertisers  are 
prepared  for  use  by  those  who  have  been  confronted 
with  them.  As  in  the  classified  department,  statistical 
records  are  kept  of  the  business  of  the  same  day  in  the 
preceeding  year  and  week  and  efforts  made  to  top  these 
figures.  Competition  in  the  newspaper  business  is 
keen.  With  us  in  Chicago  a  daily  report  is  kept  by 
an  independent  audit  company  whose  sole  business  is 
to  measure  and  furnish  to  its  subscribers,  who  are 
the  newspapers  themselves,  the  advertising  which 
appears  each  day  in  all  Chicago  papers.  By  9  :30  every 
morning  a  report  is  laid  on  my  desk  which  shows  the 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


15 


volume  of  business  in  each  of  the  four  morning  papers 
for  that  morning  and  in  each  of  the  four  evening  papers 
for  the  day  previous.  This  report  is  divided  so  as  to 
show  how  much  of  the  advertising  is  display  and  how 
much  classified;  how  much  comes  from  Chicago; 
how  much  from  the  West  and  how  much  from  the 
East.  Each  classification  of  business  is  compared  with 
the  same  day  a  year  ago  and  you  may  be  sure  that  the 
gains  and  losses  are  followed  with,  interest.  A  monthly 
report  is  also  received,  which  for  display  advertising 
gives  the  name  of  every  individual  advertiser  in  every  ‘ 
one  of  the  eight  Chicago  papers  and  the  amount  of  space 
each  one  has  used  in  each  of  the  papers  for  the  month. 
This  enormous  list  is  classified  according  to  the  kind  of 
business  advertised.  No  attempt  is  made  to  keep  the 
name  of  the  individual  classified  advertisers,  but  this 
business  is  divided  by  classifications  and  the  amount 
printed  by  each  one  of  the  papers  under  each  one  of 
about  three  hundred  and  eighty  classifications  appears 
on  this  monthly  report.  While  the  Business  Manager 
who  has  real  supervision  over  all  the  business  side  of  a 
newspaper  has  little  time  to  solicit  advertising  himself, 
he  must  follow  these  reports  closely  and  be  able  to  put 
his  finger  on  the  weak  spots  in  short  order. 

In  addition  to  the  solicitors  who  look  after  the  adver¬ 
tising  placed  from  Chicago  only,  which  is  known  as 
local  advertising,  there  is  a  separate  office  which  has 
charge  of  the  securing  of  business  from  the  so-called 
national  advertisers  who  are  located  west  of  Pittsburgh. 
A  similar  office  is  maintained  in  New  York  City  to 
look  after  the  advertising  East  of  Pittsburgh.  The  men 
who  are  engaged  in  this  work  of  securing  national 
advertising  are  usually  the  “oldest  living  graduates”  of 
our  primary  school  of  newspaper  advertising.  They  must 
compete,  not  only  with  the  other  newspapers  in  their 


16  BULLETIN  OF  THE 

own  cities  but  also  with  other  forms' of  advertising,  such 
as  magazines,  trade  papers,  bill  boards  and  street  cars. 
Among  such  men  in  the  newspaper  business  are  to  be 
found  an  increasing  percentage  of  college  graduates 
who  have  been  attracted  to  this  phase  of  the  publishing 
business  by  the  good  pay  and  the  opportunity  to  meet 
and  engage  in  a  battle  of  wits  with  some  of  the  brightest 
and  ablest  business  men  in  the  United  States. 

The  representatives  of  our  display  department, 
while  they  will  always  be  known  as  solicitors  as  long  as 
newspapers  are  published,  are  really  engaged,  not  so 
much  in  selling  neswpaper  space  as  in  an  honest  and 
earnest  effort  to  help  the  advertiser  increase  his  business. 
They  are  instructed  to  talk  to  the  advertiser  about  his 
own  business  rather  than  about  our  business.  They 
are  instructed  to  discuss  with  him  the  possibility 
of  securing  new  trade  and  the  best  methods  to  adopt 
to  go  about  it,  rather  than  to  discuss  the  extent  and 
quality  of  The  Tribune's  circulation.  We  aim  to  have 
the  representatives  of  our  advertising  department 
received  eagerly  and  gratefully  on  the  occasion  of  their 
visits,  rather  than  given  a  hearing  with  impatience  or 
reluctance.  Time  was  when  the  advertising  solicitor 
was  classed  with  the  book  agent  and  the  life  insurance 
man.  The  time  is  rapidly  approaching  when  the  adver¬ 
tising  representative  of  a  great  newspaper  will  come  down 
to  his  office  in  the  morning  and  find  a  line  of  advertisers 
waiting  for  him  outside  his  own  door.  Every  man 
wants  to  succeed.  Every  man  wants  to  increase  his 
business.  When  he  learns  that  he  can  secure  helpful 
advice  from  the  publisher’s  representative,  the  latter 
will  have  come  into  his  own. 

No  small  part  of  a  newspaper’s  personal  service  to 
its  advertisers  and  to  its  readers  is  to  be  found  in  the 
advertising  of  advertising  itself.  Advertising  is  news. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


17 


as  well  as  that  part  of  the  contents  of  a  newspaper 
which  is  printed  in  the  news  columns.  Advertising  is 
the  news  of  the  stores.  It  is  set  in  a  type  which  differs 
from  the  regular  body  type  of  the  news  columns  and  is 
paid  for  by  the  advertiser.  The  newspaper  which  prints 
a  great  volume  of  clean,  honest  advertising  news  is 
far  more  valuable  to  its  readers  than  another  news¬ 
paper  in  whose  columns  are  to  be  found  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  opportunities  to  purchase. 

Realizing  that  a  large  volume  of  advertising  was  an 
asset,  not  only  in  creating  further  advertising  but  also 
in  rendering  a  newspaper  of  greater  value  to  its  readers, 
we  sought  for  many  months  for  a  suitable  plan  by  which 
we  could  explain  to  the  people  of  Chicago  the  economic 
value  to  them  of  our  large  advertising  patronage.  We 
offered  a  series  of  prizes  for  the  best  true  stories  of  how 
money  had  been  saved  by  our  readers  through  reading 
and  buying  from  the  display  advertisements  in  our 
paper.  The  response  to  this  offer  was  genuine  and 
generous  and  we  soon  had  a  number  of  extremely 
interesting  and  valuable  accounts  of  actual  money¬ 
saving  through  the  reading  and  answering  of  adver¬ 
tisements  in  The  Tribune.  These  were  published  as  a 
series  of  advertisements,  not  only  in  our  own  paper 
but  also  in  several  of  the  evening  papers  of  Chicago. 
This  human  appeal  to  the  natural  instincts  of  economy, 
especially  in  this  age  of  the  high  cost  of  living,  produced 
a  great  deal  of  interest,  and  before  the  campaign  had 
progressed  six  weeks  we  had  actually  added  circulation, 
merely  upon  the  strength  of  the  fact  that  we  printed 
a  large  volume  of  advertising.  To  the  best  of  my 
knowledge,  this  is  the  first  time  that  any  publication 
has  successfully  sought  to  obtain  additional  circulation 
by  this  method.  Included  in  the  series  was  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  a  bride  who  was  able  to  save  nearly  a  hundred 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


dollars  on  her  first  purchase  of  furniture  for  the  new 
home ;  the  testimony  of  a  resident  of  a  nearby  town  who 
came  to  Chicago  as  the  result  of  an  advertisement  in 
The  Tribune  and,  deducting  his  railroad  fare  and  expen¬ 
ses  both  ways,  saved  over  fifteen  dollars  on  an  outfit 
of  clothing.  A  lady  who  had  been  invited  to  attend  her 
brother’s  wedding  was  at  first  discouraged  because  of 
the  fear  that  her  sister-in-law-to-be,  who  w^as  a  petted 
child  in  a  luxurious  home,  might  look  with  scorn  upon 
her  outfit  of  clothes.  As  she  herself  said  in  her  letter, 

‘  ‘  I  could  not  think  of  appearing  before  her  in  anything 
but  the  best.”  After  having  put  off  the  matter  from 
time  to  time,  this  woman  finally,  from  an  advertisement 
in  our  paper,  found  a  suitable  gown,  ordered  it  by  mail 
and  was  able  to  attend  the  wedding.  She  said  in  con¬ 
clusion,  “I  do  not  know  why  my  sister-in-law  was  so 
delighted  with  me,  but  I  am  vain  enough  to  think 
that  it  was  on  account  of  that  beautiful  suit  The  Tribune 
helped  me  to  secure.”  These  and  dozens  of  other 
instances  show  the  human  side  of  the  advertising  busi¬ 
ness  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper. 

The  third  main  division  of  the  business  side  of  a 
newspaper  is  that  of  circulation.  There  is  a  continuous 
circle  of  dispute  in  the  history  of  newspapers  as  to  which 
side  of  the  business  is  the  most  vital  to  a  newspaper’s 
success.  The  advertising  department  claims  that 
without  the  revenue  from  advertising  space  a  newspaper 
could  not  live.  The  circulation  department  claims  that 
without  circulation  there  would  be  no  advertising. 
The  news  and  editorial  departments  claim  that  without 
their  services  there  would  be  no  circulation  and  con¬ 
sequently  no  advertising.  It  might  be  said  in  passing 
that  this  famous  dispute  has  not  as  yet  been  settled. 

For  some  time  we  have  viewed  our  business  as  that  of 
a  manufacturing  concern  with  a  definite  product  to 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


19 


manufacture  and  to  sell.  We  have  consequently 
organized  our  circulation  department  as  the  sales  force 
of  our  manufacturing  business,  with  the  simply-stated 
duty  of  selling  the  product  which  our  machinery  turns 
out  from  the  various  kinds  of  raw  material  received. 
In  addition  to  this  duty,  which  is  not  as  simple  as  it 
sounds,  the  head  of  the  circulation  department  of  a 
metropolitan  newspaper  should  also  be  a  judge  of  the 
news  value  of  a  story  or  the  human  interest  value  of  a 
feature  or  a  cartoon.  Especially  is  it  the  case  with 
evening  papers  that  the  circulation  manager’s  views  are 
consulted  upon  the  question  of  the  prominence  that 
should  be  given  to  stories  or  features.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  co-operation  between  the  circulation  depart¬ 
ment  and  the  news  and  editorial  departments  should 
be  close.  When  a  story,  or  a  feature  or  a  picture  which 
will  be  especially  interesting  to  a  particular  section  of 
the  city,  or  to  some  section  outside  of  the  city,  is  about 
to  be  printed,  the  circulation  department  should  know 
about  it  and  consequently  arrange  to  obtain  an  espec¬ 
ially  careful  distribution  in  the  neighborhood  affected. 

The  city  circulation  of  a  metropolitan  daily  may  be 
roughly  divided  into  two  groups.  First  that  which  is 
distributed  by  carrier  to  the  homes,  and  second,  that 
which  is  sold  at  stores,  corners  and  hotels.  Carrier  circu¬ 
lation  is  eagerly  sought  by  every  morning  newspaper 
for  the  reason  that  home-delivered  copies  of  the  paper 
are  considered  especially  desirable  by  advertisers. 

In  some  cities  each  newspaper  has  its  own  carriers 
who  are  either  on  the  regular  pay-roll  of  the  newspaper 
or  are  subsidized  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  their  services 
exclusive.  In  such  cases  the  newspaper  has  the  name  and 
address  of  every  person  to  whom  copies  of  the  paper 
are  delivered  by  carrier.  This  is  of  course  a  desirable 
thing  to  have,  but  as  you  can  readily  appreciate,  a  very 


20 


bulletin  of  the 


troublesome  and  expensive  record  to  keep.  In  Chicago 
all  the  morning  newspapers  are  delivered  by  what  are 
known  as  official  carriers,  who  are  really  retailers  of  the 
paper.  These  carriers  have  a  standing  order  wdth  each 
newspaper  for  the  required  number  of  copies  at  dealer’s 
rates  and  in  turn  retail  the  papers  to  the  subscribers, 
hiring  boys  and  young  men  to  deliver  them.  The 
carrier’s  profits  are  confined  to  the  difference  between 
the  dealer’s  price  and  the  retail  price  of  the  paper 
which,  in  the  case  of  Chicago  newspapers,  all  of  which 
sell  at  one  cent  retail,  is  not  large.  These  carriers  are 
not  paid  any  money  by  the  newspapers  themselves  and 
consequently  no  newspaper  has  in  its  possession  the 
names  and  addresses  of  those  to  whom  papers  are 
delivered  by  carrier. 

Papers  sold  at  stores,  corners  and  hotels  are  purchased 
by  those  who  conduct  news  stands  and  who  obtain 
their  profits  in  the  same  way  as  do  the  carriers. 

The  main  factor  in  the  city  circulation  of  a  newspaper 
is  the  driver.  We  have  a  stable  about  twenty  minutes’ 
drive  from  our  main  office,  in  which  we  keep  about 
seventy  horses  and  an  equal  number  of  wagons.  We  have 
in  addition  half  a  dozen  automobile  trucks  which  are 
kept  in  a  separate  garage.  Each  driver  brings  his 
wagon  to  the  office  of  publication  at  the  appointed 
hour,  takes  on  his  load  of  papers  with  his  delivery 
sheets,  and  makes  his  schedule  delivery,  whether  to 
railroad  stations,  carriers  or  newsdealers. 

In  addition  to  being  delivery  men,  most  of  our 
drivers  are  also  collectors  and  salesmen.  All  city  cir¬ 
culation  is  collected  for  in  advance,  and  upon  two 
certain  days  of  the  week  it  is  the  driver’s  duty  to  take 
orders  for  the  following  week’s  supply,  and  to  collect 
in  advance  for  this  supply,  which  serves  as  a  standing 
order  for  the  ensuing  week.  Of  course  a  few  extra 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME  21 

copies  are  carried  to  arrange  for  any  extra  demand  that 
the  newsdealer  may  have.  These  are  sold  on  the  C.  O.  D. 
basis.  Copies  of  our  paper  are  not  returnable  and  it  is 
therefore  necessary  for  the  dealer  to  be  especially  careful 
in  specifying  his  orders,  because  he  cannot  return 
unsold  copies  and  get  credit  for  them.  The  question 
of  whether  or  not  a  daily  newspaper  should  be  returnable 
is  one  of  the  great  problems  before  the  metropolitan 
newspapers  of  the  United  States.  It  cannot  be  settled 
arbitrarily,  the  conditions  in  each  city  being  different. 
We  have  found  it  to  be  a  cleaner  and  more  economical 
way  of  doing  business  to  have  our  paper  non-returnable, 
thus  eliminating  the  possibility  of  the  large  waste 
which  creeps  in  and  continually  increases  in  connection 
with  the  manufacture  of  a  returnable  newspaper. 

As  a  delivery  man,  a  driver  need  possess  merely  the 
same  grade  of  intelligence  that  is  required  of  a  delivery 
man  in  any  kind  of  merchandising  business.  As  a 
collector,  a  trifle  more  tact  and  diplomacy  are  required. 
But  it  is  as  a  salesman  that  the  qualities  of  the  efficient 
driver  are  most  in  demand.  Young  Johnny  Jones 
operating  a  news  stand  at  a  certain  corner,  places  an 
order  for  the  ensuing  week  for  one  hundred  copies  of 
The  Daily  Tribune  for  each  day.  The  driver  who 
delivers  the  district  in  which  Jones’  stand  is  located, 
knows  that  Jones  can  sell  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
copies  each  day  if  he  will  stay  at  his  stand  a  little  later 
in  the  morning  or  come  to  it  a  little  earlier.  He  knows 
that  Jones  is  afraid  of  being  stuck  with  papers  which  he 
cannot  return.  It  is  up  to  the  driver  to  sell  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  copies  instead  of  one  hundred  copies  a 
day  to  Jones,  without  intimidation  or  any  other  influence 
except  what  can  be  exerted  by  true  salesmanship. 
Exactly  at  this  point  is  determined  the  difference 
between  a  capable  and  an  inefficient  driver. 


22 


bulletin  of  the 


As  a  rule,  those  engaged  in  the  retailing  of  newspapers 
in  large  cities  include  many  foreigners,  some  of  whom 
cannot  even  write  their  names.  In  some  cities  news 
vendors  include  a  rough  element  wdiich  is  quick  to 
avenge  fancied  wrongs  by  the  methods  usually  adopted 
by  such  people.  During  the  newspaper  strike  in  Chicago, 
the  men  who  drove  newspaper  wagons,  delivered  and 
collected  for  the  newspapers,  were  like  the  advance 
guard  of  an  army,  whose  isolated  position  is  likely  to 
be  cut  off  at  any  time  by  the  enemy.  They  have  to  do 
their  work  in  the  dark  hours  of  the  morning  and  I  can 
assure  you  that  there  were  some  routes  in  the  City 
of  Chicago  for  which  drivers  of  an  especially  coura¬ 
geous  nature  had  to  be  selected. 

In  addition  to  the  drivers,  many  metropolitan  news¬ 
papers  employ  a  corps  of  inspectors,  or  as  they  are 
called  in  Chicago,  division  men.  It  is  the  duty  of  these 
men  to  watch  the  sale  of  newspapers  in  their  respective 
divisions,  and  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  drivers 
are  successful  in  selling  as  many  copies  of  their  par¬ 
ticular  newspaper  as  the  public  demands.  These  men 
must  watch  and  verify  the  work  of  the  drivers,  adjust 
complaints  and  petty  grievances  and  make  sure  that 
their  newspaper  is  properly  represented  on  the  streets. 
The  best  division  men  are  naturally  graduates  from 
among  the  drivers. 

While  the  city  circulation  of  a  metropolitan  news¬ 
paper  is  characterized  by  the  keenest  kind  of  compe¬ 
tition,  the  securing  and  maintenance  of  country  cir¬ 
culation  is  much  less  strenuous.  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
that  there  is  no  competition  for  country  circulation, 
because  there  is  a  great  deal  of  it.  Country  circulation 
is  of  two  kinds,  that  among  subscribers  by  mail  and 
that  among  dealers.  The  subscriber  may  be  solicited 
or  he  may  send  in  his  subscription  voluntarily.  In  either 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


23 


event  his  name  and  address  is  merely  entered  upon  the 
records  and  upon  receipt  of  payment  in  advance  for 
the  period  specified,  the  paper  is  mailed  to  him.  Where 
formerly  papers  mailed  to  subscribers  were  addressed 
by  hand  and  later  by  a  hand  stamping  device,  nowadays 
there  are  several  makes  of  machinery  which  address, 
fold,  and  wrap  individual  papers  and  slide  them  into 
mail  bags  ready  for  transportation  to  the  trains.  We 
have  four  of  these  machines  in  our  office,  each  one  of 
which  has  a  capacity  of  about  9,000  single  papers 
per  hour. 

Country  circulation  among  dealers  is  shipped  upon 
standing  orders  obtained  both  voluntarily  and  by 
means  of  a  corps  of  traveling  men  who  are  continally 
visiting  the  surrounding  territory  in  an  endeavor  to 
obtain  more  circulation,  to  adjust  complaints  and  to 
check  up  slow  payers.  Country  circulation  among 
dealers  is  not  as  a  general  rule  upon  the  paid  in  advance 
basis,  bills  being  rendered  monthly  and  those  dealers 
who  are  financially  irresponsible  deprived  of  their  supply 
of  papers. 

The  methods  of  obtaining  circulation,’  both  city  and 
country,  are  as  numerous  and  as  varied  as  the  stars  in 
the  skies.  Premiums,  contests,  prizes,  bribes  and  gifts 
of  every  conceivable  nature  have  been  and  are  still 
employed  by  some  newspapers.  Every  one  of  these 
methods  has  its  advocates  and  nearly  every  one  of  them 
will  bring  results  if  a  newspaper  is  willing  to  spend  a 
suffieent  amount  of  money  to  obtain  them.  It  not 
infrequently  happens  that  a  newspaper  will  pay  out 
to  obtain  circulation  nearly  as  much  as  its  gross  circu¬ 
lation  revenue.  This  practice,  if  persisted  in,  spells 
ruin  for  any  newspaper.  We  of  The  Tribune  believe  that 
it  is  consistent  with  our  policy  of  considering  ourselves 
a  manufacturing  concern  and  of  selling  our  papers 


24 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


through  our  circulation  department  accordingly,  to 
use  no  one  of  the  methods  which  are  commonly  employed 
as  an  artificial  stimulus.  For  some  time  past,  we  have 
not  used  so  much  as  a  two-cent  stamp  as  an  inducement 
to  buy  our  paper.  We  do,  however,  spend  a  good  many 
thousands  of  dollars  in  advertising  to  the  public  what 
we  have  to -sell,  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  any  manu¬ 
facturing  concern  advertises  its  product  to  the  public. 
In  printed  advertisements  placed  in  other  newspapers 
we  exploit  the  merits  of  our  newspaper.  We  tell  of  its 
sources  of  obtaining  news,  of  its  features  and  of  its 
cartoons.  We  also  tell  of  the  amount  of  advertising  it 
carries,  as  I  have  previously  described  to  you.  Through 
this  method  and  this  alone  we  seek  to  create  a  constantly 
increasing  demand  for  our  product  among  the  people, 
whose  increased  demand  upon  the  carriers,  the  newsboys 
and  our  own  subscription  department  tend  to  give  us 
the  increased  business  that  we  seek. 

From  this  very  brief  outline  of  the  kind  of  work 
required  of  the  circulation  department  of  a  metro¬ 
politan  daily,  you  can  obtain  some  vague  idea  of  the 
qualifications  sought  for  in  a  circulation  manager  who 
shall  have  immediate  supervision  over  all  the  many 
phases  of  the  work  of  his  department.  It  is  small  wonder 
that  the  efficient  circulation  manager  is  consulted  by 
the  news  department  for  his  opinion  concerning  the 
news  value  of  stories.  With  the  coming  of  the  auto¬ 
mobile,  the  circulation  manager  now  finds  it  convenient 
to  cover  his  city  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning, 
much  as  a  general  inspects  his  troops  after  they  have 
been  placed  in  the  field  and  are  ready  for  the  battle. 

The  remaining  one  of  the  four  broad  divisions  of  the 
business  side  of  a  newspaper  is  that  of  Manufaeuturing. 
The  business  manager  who  exercises  supervision  over 
this  branch  as  well  as  over  the  other  three,  must  surround 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


25 


himself  with  foremen  who  are  efficient  and  trustworthy 
if  he  expects  to  produce  the  maximum  results.  The 
technical  knowledge  required  of  a  man  who  could  operate 
or  assist  in  operating  each  one  of  the  pieces  of  machinery 
in  the  office  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper,  would  mean 
not  only  years  of  book  learning  but  also  years  of  practi¬ 
cal  experience.  There  are  mighty  few  business  managers 
connected  with  big  newspapers  who  have  such  know¬ 
ledge.  Lacking  it,  one  must  rely  upon  his  subordinates 
in  charge  of  the  various  divisions  of  the  mechanical  de¬ 
partment  and  upon  the  common  sense  which  is,  after  all, 
the  basic  principle  in  the  mangement  of  any  business, 
whatever  may  be  its  nature.  In  buying  supplies  for  the 
manufacturing  department  someone,  in  the  first  place, 
must  determine  whether  or  not  the  supplies  are  neces¬ 
sary;  then  where  they  can  be  purchased  to  the  greatest 
advantage  and  finally,  whether  the  prices  are  the  lowest 
that  can  be  obtained  for  the  requisite  quality.  In  opera¬ 
tion,  someone  must  judge  the  requisite  number  of  men 
to  be  employed  in  each  branch  of  manufacturing  and 
the  efficiency  of  the  work  of  the  men  who  are  thus 
employed.  It  must  be  determined  whether  or  not  the 
output  of  each  piece  of  machinery  is  as  great  in  quantity 
and  as  good  in  quality  as  it  should  be.  Comparisons 
must  be  made  between  each  of  several  machines  doing 
the  same  kind  of  work  in  order  to  determine  the  com¬ 
parative  efficiency  of  each  machine  and  of  its  particular 
crew.  On  these  and  many  other  points,  statistics  and 
reports  should  continually  be  at  hand,  through  even 
a  cursory  examination  of  which  the  business  manager 
may  be  able  to  determine  whether  the  results  sought 
are  being  produced.  If  these  results  are  forthcoming, 
judicious  commendation  and  ultimate  financial  reward 
will  insure  their  continuance.  If  they  are  not  forth¬ 
coming,  the  business  manager  must  talk  to  his  foremen, 


26 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


and  if  a  satisfactory  explanation  is  not  produced  and 
if  the  unsatisfactory  results  continue,  there  is  no 
recourse  except  to  change  foremen.  In  a  business  where 
one  has  to  depend  upon  the  efficiency  and  loyalty  of 
subordinates,  there  is  but  one  course  to  pursue  and  that 
is  to  give  these  subordinates,  within  reason,  full  power 
to  manage  the  details  of  their  respective  departments 
as  long  as  results  are  satisfactory.  Care  must  be  exer¬ 
cised  to  transact  all  the  business  of  each  department 
through  the  subordinate  in  charge  of  it.  If  a  business 
manager  attempts  to  interfere  by  transacting  business 
without  the  knowledge  of  his  department  heads,  con¬ 
fusion  and  dissatisfaction  are  bound  to  result.  If  the 
subordinates  to  whom  such  authority  is  delegated  do 
not  produce  satsifactory  results,  the  only  method  to 
follow  is  to  replace  them  with  others  who  will  accept 
similar  responsibility  and  produce  results. 

The  manufacturing  or  mechanical  department  of  a 
newspaper  falls  readily  into  four  divisions.  These  are 
respectively,  the  work  of  the  etching  room,  the  compos¬ 
ing  and  proof  rooms,  the  stereotype  room  and  the  press 
room. 

In  the  etching  room  are  made  all  the  cuts  of  illustra¬ 
tions  that  appear  in  the  news  and  feature  columns  of 
the  paper,  and  in  the  case  of  newspapers  equipped  to  do 
commercial  work,  many  of  the  cuts  of  illustrations 
which  appear  jn  the  advertisements  of  local  houses. 
The  work  of  the  etching  department  is  of  an  especially 
delicate  and  technical  nature  and  skilled  employes 
are  secured  only  from  the  ranks  of  those  who  have 
served  a  long  apprenticeship.  I  think  I  am  safe  in  saying 
that  there  is  no  business  manager  of  a  metropolitan 
newspaper  who  could  go  into  an  etching  room,  roll 
up  his  sleeves  and  succeed  in  making  a  cut  from  a  photo¬ 
graph,  a  wash  drawing  or  a  pen-and-ink  sketch. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAME 


27 


As  everybody  knows,  in  the  composing  room  is  set 
either  by  machines  or  by  hand,  all  the  matter  that  is 
contained  in  a  newspaper  and  that  does  not  come  into 
the  office  in  plate  form,  as  does  a  certain  portion  of  the 
advertising.  To  the  uninitiated,  the  fact  that  some  of 
the  news  printed  in  the  paper  which  is  delivered  at  one’s 
house  at  six  o’clock  in  the  morning  is  frequently  received 
in  the  composing  room  in  manuscript  form  as  late  as 
three  o’clock  in  the  morning,  is  difficult  of  belief.  Of 
course  all  copy  to  be  set  does  not  come  in  at  one  time, 
and  indeed  advertising  is  frequently  set  up  several 
days  before  the  day  on  which  it  actually  appears  in  the 
paper,  in  order  that  the  advertiser  may  have  ample 
time  to  see  his  proofs  and  make  corrections.  Even 
with  the  most  careful  arrangement  for  spreading  the 
work  of  the  composing  room  over  the  greatest  possible 
length  of  time,  the  dead  line  for  closing  the  last  form 
is  always  at  hand  too  soon  and  the  frantic  efforts  to 
close  the  last  page  and  send  it  to  the  stereotypers  would 
indicate  to  the  layman  that  there  was  no  possibility 
whatever  of  getitng  out  the  newspaper  on  time  and  in 
good  order.  I  shall  not  take  up  your  time  by  a  detailed 
description  of  the  various  steps  in  the  transition  from  a 
written  story  to  the  printed  page,  believing  that  a  better 
way  of  bringing  this  matter  to  your  attention  would  be 
through  a  visit  to  our  office  in  Chicago  while  this  work 
is  being  done,  and  I  hope  that  we  may  have  such  visits 
from  you  in  groups,  in  the  near  future. 

As  each  page  of  tomorrow  morning’s  newspaper  is 
made  into  its  form,  it  is  passed  on  to  the  stereotype 
department  which  takes  from  it  the  “blotting  paper” 
impression  known  as  a  matrix,  from  which  the  curved 
plate  is  finally  cast  from  whose  surface  the  actual  print¬ 
ing  is  done.  In  order  to  obviate  the  necessity  of  sending 
the  heavy  forms  themselves  down  into  the  basement 


28 


bulletin  of  the 


where  the  plate  casting  and  printing  are  done,  a  part 
of  the  stereotype  department’s  work  is  usually  done  in 
the  same  room  as  that  occupied  by  the  typesetters, 
or  in  an  adjoining  room.  The  matrices  thus  made  from 
the  type  forms  are  then  sent  into  the  basement  by  chute 
or  lift  and  the  actual  plate  casting  is  done  in  a  room 
adjoining  the  press  room,  so  that  the  transfer  of  the 
heavy  plates,  each  of  which  weighs  about  forty  pounds, 
may  be  done  with  the  least  possible  effort.  In  the  com¬ 
posing  room,  and  in  the  upstairs  work  of  the  stereotype 
room,  machines  have  taken  the  place  of  hand  labor 
to  a  large  extent.  Where  once  all  the  type,  both  news 
and  advertising,  which  appears  in  a  newspaper  was 
set  by  hand,  today  only  a  part  of  the  advertising  matter 
is  still  hand  set  and  even  that  part  is  set  from  type  which 
is  made  in  the  newspaper  office  itself  upon  machines 
especially  designed  for  that  purpose.  In  former  days 
the  impression  on  the  paper  matrix  laid  upon  the  type 
form  was  taken  by  beating  with  mallets  held  in  the 
hand.  To-day  the  same  effect  is  produced  by  submitting 
the  type  forms  with  the  paper  matrices  superimposed, 
to  tremenduous  mechanical  pressure. 

The  downstairs  work  of  the  stereotype  department 
consists  of  the  casting  of  the  curved  plates  from  the 
paper  matrices.  It  is  only  a  short  time  ago  that  this 
work  was  done  by  hand  casting  boxes  into  which  the 
molten  metal  was  poured  by  ladles  held  in  the  hand. 
This  mechanical  process,  which  was  considered  at  the 
time  of  its  adoption  as  pretty  nearly  the  last  word  in 
plate  casting,  has  now  been  superseded  by  a  big  machine 
into  which  the  paper  matrix  is  placed  and  by  wdiich 
an  almost  unlimited  number  of  plates  from  a  single 
matric  can  be  cast,  one  after  another  in  rapid  succession, 
every  bit  of  the  work  except  a  simple  trimming  of  the 
edges  at  the  end  of  the  process  being  mechanically  done. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NOTRE  DAIvIE 


29 


The  plates  thus  cast  are  carried  by  hand  into  the  press 
room,  which  is  usually  adjoining  the  stereotype  room, 
and  there  are  locked  upon  the  cylinders  of  the  presses 
in  the  proper  order  to  produce  a  newspaper  of  the 
requisite  number  and  proper  succession  of  pages.  .As 
the  type  forms  are  received  in  succession  by  the  upstairs 
end  of  the  stereotype  department,  so  the  metal  plates 
are  received  in  succession  by  the  press  room,  each  one 
being  locked  in  its  proper  position  upon  the  press  cylin¬ 
ders  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  final  plate,  which  is 
known  as  the  starter.  Each  press  as  it  finally  receives 
the  starter,  is  put  in  motion  and  the  grind  of  the  final 
stages  of  the  night’s  work  begins. 

After  the  starters  for  the  first  edition  of  the  daily 
issue  of  a  morning  paper  are  all  upon  the  presses, 
there  comes  a  brief  lull  all  along  the  line  except  in  the 
press  room,  and  the  chance  to  draw  a  brief  breath 
between  editions.  The  presses  are  kept  running  until 
a  sufficient  supply  of  papers  has  been  printed  to  fill 
the  demands  of  those  dealers  and  subscribers  who 
obtain  the  first  or  fast  mail  edition.  In  the  meantime, 
later  news  is  coming  in  and  being  set  up  in  the  composing 
room,  where  a  certain  number  of  fresh  pages  are  made 
up  to  take  the  places  of  the  corresponding  pages  in  the 
earlier  -  editions.  These  pages  are  sent  through  the 
usual  course  and  finally  emerge  into  the  press  room 
at  the  proper  moment  when  they  must  be  substituted 
for  their  predecessors  upon  the  press  cylinders.  As 
these  plates  are  finally  changed,  each  press  starts  up 
again  and  the  final  or  city  edition,  unless  there  are  later 
extras  on  account  of  later  news,  is  run  off.  On  an 
ordinary  day  the  presses  clear  about  four  o’clock  in 
the  morning. 

In  the  case  of  practically  all  metropolitan  newspapers 
the  management  has  to  deal  with  organized  labor  in 


30 


BULLETIN  OF  THE 


all  the  mechanical  departments.  Wages,  hours  and 
working  conditions  are  settled  in  advance  by  written 
contract  between  the  newspapers  and  the  local  and 
international  bodies  in  the  respective  mechanical  news¬ 
paper  trades.  Disputes  occasionally  arise  concerning 
certain  technical  points,  which  are  adjusted  by  com¬ 
mittees  representing  the  two  parties,  or  in  the  case 
of  disagreement,  by  arbitration  boards  organized  either 
locally  or  nationally  as  the  case  in  question  may  be 
susceptible  of  decision.  The  business  manager,  in  addi¬ 
tion  to  his  other  duties,  finds  it  necessary  to  sit  as  a 
member  of  these  committees  and  negotiate  on  behalf 
of  his  newspaper  concerning  such  disputes,  or  upon  their 
expiration,  concerning  the  renewal  of  agreements  with 
organized  labor.  During  these  meetings  one  is  impressed 
with  the  intelligence  and  cleverness  of  those  who 
represent  the'  organized  newspaper  trades  and  one 
frequently  finds  among  .such  men,  those  who  know  their 
history,  their  literature,  their  law  and  their  politics 
to  a  degree  that  would  considerably  embarass  the  aver¬ 
age  college  graduate. 

In  giving  you  the  foregoing  outline  of  the  business 
side  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper,  you  will  observe 
that  I  have  not  invaded  the  field  of  the  news  and  edi¬ 
torial  department,  I  believe  that  this  is  the  policy  for 
a  business  manager  to  adopt.  I  believe  that  no  business 
manager  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper  should  seek  or 
be  given  any  voice  whatsoever  in  connection  with  what 
is  printed  in  the  news,  editorial  or  feature  columns. 
The  business  manager,  in  my  opinion,  should  confine 
himself  strictly  to  producing  and  selling  his  output 
and  leave  what  is  printed  in  or  what  is  ommitted  from 
the  news  columns  to  the  discretion  of  someone  else. 


